Last night I went out with my friends to a restaurant. It’s a family restaurant and not fancy or pretentious. The food is good and the prices are reasonable. It’s a popular spot among many of my friends. In fact one of them had eaten breakfast there yesterday morning.
I ordered a quarter chicken with a side Greek salad. The meal also came with sauce and a bun. When it arrived the chicken breast was on a luncheon sized plate, the salad was on a bread and butter plate and the sauce and bun were on a third plate. Everyone else had all the food on one dinner plate except on woman who ordered the same combo as I did. I thought maybe they didn’t want to combine the hot food with the cold food but those who ordered potatoes had coleslaw on their dinner plate. The meal included a choice of potato but I ordered a salad instead. Or so I thought. I was charged for a meal and extra for the tiny salad. I was less than impressed.
Have you ever been baffled by the presentation of a dinner in a restaurant?
Cathy Lynn Brooks 
It does sound strange! Most restaurants I have been to would swap potato / fries for salad without charging extra. I think at least they ought to have told you when you ordered that salad would be extra. Perhaps giving the salad on a different plate was a way to justify charging it as a separate dish! In the UK it is not unusual to serve the bun (we say bread roll) on a small side plate but that may be something particular to the UK / northern Europe. However in this case the bun may be served with the starter and the bun plate removed when the main is served. Whether or not you’re done with the bun 😉
When I went on a school trip many many years ago to Pargue in the Czech Republic, we stayed in an affordable hotel where we also ate our evening meal. Several times at least part of the sweet dessert course would be laid out on the table already when we sat down, before our main course had been served. However I suspect that may have been to make things easier for the small staff because the dessert would be cold, something like a slice of sponge with fruit pieces on top, whereas the main course was hot and the principle part of the meal. That way the servers only had to bring the main then clear the tables once at the end.
Ginny xx
LikeLiked by 1 person
In this case the server had three separate small plates instead of one dinner plate and perhaps a bread and butter plate with the roll on it.
LikeLike
I am accustomed to salad and bread being served on their own respective plates. If the salad were a side to the entree, it should not have been extra, unless advertised as such- at least, that’s how it is, anywhere in the U.S. I have eaten only a few meals in Canada, and noticed a tendency towards a la carte, with regard to salads and such.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I guess that’s how they serve it. It was odd having a piece of chicken on a plate all by itself.
LikeLike